Sunday, 19 February 2012

I’m about to commence my third year on the allotment and for the first time will plant some seeds that I collected up last year. I picked up some marigold seeds at Seedy Sunday last year without knowing that they would outperform all other plants in the strebergarten by a mile.

Here are the reasons why I think marigolds are the best plant ever:

They look stunning in a garden or allotment. Bright yellow and orange flowers filled the garden from May to October, there were even a few left in December.

They grow easily and in abundance, you will get lots and lots of flowers!

Slugs and snails detest the smell. I had virtually no slug damage to my vegetables last year as I made little calendula borders around everything.

You can make a healthy tea directly from the flowers. Calendula is a great detoxifier.

You can dry the petals and drink the tea all year round.

I was excited at being able to take my own tiny packets of seeds along to this year’s Seedy Sunday. I decorated the packets and procured a number of vegetable seeds in exchange. It was all very Jack and the Beanstalk.

Because I spent most of the day promoting The Green Centre “Mile of Potatoes” project I didn’t manage to swap all of my seeds. I have 10 packets left so thought it was a great opportunity to do a little blog giveaway and share the beauty of marigolds with my lovely readers.

So there are 10 packets of marigold seeds up for grabs and I’m giving one lucky reader the chance to win a selection of other marigold themed goodies as well!

A box of my home made tea bags, containing six bags of black tea with added calendula.

2 marigold coloured crochet hearts (one orange, one yellow) for you to hang up in your home. These are made of 80% bamboo yarn so are silky and soft and made of eco-friendly yarn.

A very pretty photo frame. The tenuous link to marigolds is that it’s yellow and has birds on it.

The Royal Horticultural Society Treasury of Flowers, found at the flea market yesterday morning!

To be in with a chance of winning, please add a comment below with a link to a beautiful or handmade or vintage version of your favourite flower.

It might be a link to something you’ve made, something you’ve spotted online or simply a photo of something you’ve found and fallen in love with. At the end I’ll make a little summary of all the lovely things you’ve shared!

Last date for entries is 29th February and I’ll pick a winner and 9 runner ups at random. For an extra chance of winning, you can follow me on Google Friend Connect too.

10 comments:

Hello again! I didn't know you could get so much out of a marigold. Great giveaway...one of my favourite flowers are ranunculus (ranunculi?) and since you ask I found this link for a handmade one...http://www.weddingbee.com/2011/03/22/fabric-flower-tutorial-2/

Anyway, the main reason I popped over here (and then got sidetracked by your giveaway) was to let you know we've given you a Liebster Award...find out more on our post from today! Carla and Olga

Hi Lyndsey, thanks for linking my blog on cooking with calendula flowers. This reminded me to make my cake again for this coming Easter. My front bank is full of calendula's right now and they look so pretty.

I just joined your blog and am looking forward to following you.Thanks again for stopping by my blog today.

I goofed on that last comment. I have so many favorite flowers that I really can't pick just one so I will add a link to one of my favorite creative bloggers. <a href="http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2012/02/happy-hooky-work.html'>Attic 24>/a>. She makes the most beautiful crochet flowers. Hope you all check the blog.

Thanks for sharing this giveaway with me! Of course, my fave flower is none other than calendula. There is a neat idea at Twig and Toadstool for using calendula flowers in a rainbow birthday cake. I'm not sure if this is the type of thing you are looking for, but I thought it was a really neat idea:

Wow, more amazing links to very pretty, very creative flowery things. Carla, I follow Attic 24 as well. I love checking out her crochet projects, and she's just blogged about all sorts of flowers this week too!